Dream Girl
by Simply Hopeless
Summary: SasuNaru. Just one visit to the beach turns into a search for Sasuke to find the one girl that made his heart stir. But wait... she isn't a girl? Although everyone thinks so it seems that nothing is as it seems and Naruto seems to be living proof of that.


Hello this is Simply Hopeless here, with a new story here for you. I would like to thank **Byakko Ta** for agreeing to be my beta for this story. I feel sorry for her having to put up with an author like me; but I'm glad that this story will be properly edited.

I'll just go ahead and admit I never really thought that I was going to write this story. At first, I had this image of Naruto on the beach looking extremely sad and shared the idea with my friend. Then it blossomed into this sad little story, which I really don't know if it will continue or not… But if you like it enough, and review it enough, I know it will continue! So here's to hoping.

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own Naruto, but this story plot is mine... The lyrics aren't mine either, but from Nine Inch Nails, _Every Day Is Exactly The Same_… The lyrics hopefully set the mood… _

_**Sometimes I think I'm happy here **_

_**Sometimes I still pretend **_

_**I can't remember how this all got started **_

_**But I can tell you —exactly— How it will end **_

_**Dream Girl **_

Tears welled up in luminescent blue orbs as they stared, mesmerized, by the slowly lapping waves of the ocean. The frothy tongues licked the sandy shore and little brown toes before reluctantly pulling away. Long, flaxen hair was gently teased to the left by invisible fingers of wind, determined to pluck a few strands from the stubborn adolescent's head, before letting out a sigh of failure and allowing the hair to settle down atop the adolescent's head again for a few heartbeats.

The prone body could care less that nature tried in vain to move him entirely. He just wanted to put up roots and remain still for all eternity in this exact spot. The child could only remember that this was where it all took place.

Where, on a seemingly perfect day like this, his castle in the sky came tumbling down around his ears. The very memories made him feel like his heart was being enclosed in a tight fist that refused to let go. Very real fingers instinctively reached for his chest, his fingernails nearly digging into it as phantom sensations had his lungs burning like fire from the remembered experience of saltwater filling them up until he couldn't breathe.

A small whimper slipped from between petal-soft lips as the small form was thrown, once more, into the chilly seawater from his memories.

BEGIN FLASHBACK

_It seemed to be a beautiful day. The twins were standing on the boat, orange life preserves on despite the protests from the two. Their blonde locks fell down a little past their shoulder blades, and each had on their matching outfits involving a bright orange that made their mother cringe. Moreover, they could readily declare__1__ that their favorite color was orange._

_Naruto and Rini had always been together; that was the one fact that they knew from the very center of their core. With the other by their side, neither could ever say they were ever alone. If one twin had scraped their knee or elbow, the other was determined to get a bandage and put it right in place, after they kissed their twin's owwie, of course. They both shared a birthmark on their right cheek… well the right cheek that stayed out of the view of public if their poor mother could help it. Their shared pet frog (who their mother was unaware of) was named 'Piccolo,' after their favorite character from their most adored anime show. _

_At the moment, the twins were having their birthday right on the family's sailboat, named Gemini in celebration of the birth of the twins.__2__ Their father, after much pleading and begging, had promised them that he would let them sail the ship, under close supervision of course. _

_But before that could happen… _it _happened…_

_Naruto's head struck a piece of the sinking boat before his whole body began to sink farther down, following the boat into the murky depths. The floating devise he had been wearing earlier was lost from the gripping and pulling current of the sea. The water, taking on a dark navy blue hue, churned and seethed into a livid stew that threatened to make the child one of its ingredients._

_Blue eyes blinked up from where he was submerged in the water to a sky that was now a bruised purple color, before splitting nearly in two as a fork of lightening made its way through the sky. Head turning, his eyes captured the frightened eyes of his mirror-image,_

_the small body of his twin sister, sinking into the depths with him. He stretched out his hand, straining desperately as she did the same, reaching for all they were worth as the two tried to close the growing gap between them. _

_Air escaped his lungs in the form of bubbles, steadily flowing from his lips as he began to lose consciousness. His world first brightened to a blinding white before the edges of his vision darkened to a disturbing darkness._

"_Na-ru-to…"_

"_Ri-ni…"_

_They tried to say each others name at the same time, but each watched as the last of the other's air escaped, bubbles blossoming from their mouths and the dark edges of their world started to spread, almost devouring it in one gulp._

_The darkness stretched on forever; never ending. He felt nothing but an all consuming numbness to his being. No matter how much he tried to traverse across the unknown territory of the seeming abyss, there was not even a glimmer of hope of coming to an end of the darkness. Until, suddenly, he felt himself take in a deep breath and open his eyes. _

_His mind screamed for his better half as Naruto slammed back into the ugly reality that was his waking world. He clenched his eyes closed, as he forced his lips apart one last time and gave it his all, drawing on air he did not have, to scream for his twin._

"_RINI!" He cried out in anguish, eyes fluttering open again, only to see a white ceiling instead of water and a blue sky. Little chest heaving, his fingertips tried desperately to rub away the raw feeling he felt as his heart thumped madly along in his chest. A fast beeping sound next to him appeared to have alerted the nurses to his disturbance, as they rushed into his room seconds later._

"_You're finally awake, Naruto," One of the nurses said in relief as she ushered the other orderlies out when seeing his aware eyes looking around the room._

_His eyes nearly skated over the strange nurse wondering vaguely to his self where Rini was. Why was he in this strange bed, and was the entire thing on the sailboat just a dream? He mindlessly tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down by hands unwilling to see the boy up when his body had not fully recovered._

"_Rini," he croaked. His voice was close to cracking in its rawness. Each time he closed his eyes he could see fright in his twin's eyes as they reached vainly for each other. His heart gave a terrible lurch at the thought of something bad happening to his twin without him at least trying to make it better in any way possible._

"_Naruto…" began the nurse desperately as she once more pushed the boy against crisp, white sheets, "Please, you must rest now, dear." Fingers gripped tightly around bony, little shoulders so that he held no chance to move. Troubled blue eyes stared up at the nurse, anguish made known by every quiver of his lip and in every tear that threatened to spill over onto his cheeks._

"_Please! I want… Ri—" He stubbornly began again, when the nurse cut him off._

"_I… I'm sorry but she… she…" She didn't continue. The nurse's eyes, for some reason, began to fill with tears. Seeing her tears, Naruto gently grasped one of the hands still on his small shoulders and brought it to his lips in a sign of comfort. Even if he was the one who needed the comfort right now._

_And he did need comfort. Tears couldn't help but spill down, one by one, down round cheeks. Tears were shed for not only his Rini and himself, but for the nurse who couldn't stop crying. Their tears mingled together as the nurse's plopped onto Naruto's face, until she had the grace of mind to start dabbing them up with a corner of his blanket._

"_She's… she's… But she c… can't be g—" he began to hiccup, when suddenly the door was jerked open and he jolted away from arms that were drawing the poor boy against her comforting chest. Startled blue eyes darted towards a woman who could only be identified as his mother, with darker blonde hair then her children, but the same deep azure that were swimming with tears. _

"_Mom?"_

"_Rini, you're safe," Naruto's mother sighed out in relief. She quickly pushed pass the nurse and drew the boy into her lap to rock lightly with him while she kissed his tear-stained face over and over again._

"_Mrs. Uzumaki, he's not—" the nurse exclaimed, but the other woman cut her off._

"_Rini! I'm so glad you survived." 'Though, I can see the nurse told you about your father and brother passing away in the boating incident,' the older woman thought with an inward sigh. She had hoped to gently break the news to her daughter, not have a stranger tell her, but she guessed there was no use in complaining now. The mother gave a brief look to the nurse, who had started to wipe her tears away with a piece of Kleenex, a troubled look coming to the nurse's features._

"_Mrs. Uzumaki, that is your son in that bed, not your daughter," the nurse tried to disclose delicately, but was again cut off before the hospital worker could explain further._

"_No, you are mistaken!" Naruto's mother maintained, narrowing her eyes as she drew her child closer; her nails nearly dug into his skin as she hugged him tightly to her form, as if afraid that loosening her grip, just a little, would make him vanish into thin air. "She­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­** is **__Rini…" the woman emphasized each word. Her nostrils flared; her eyes blazed as she dared the nurse to say differently again, before her eyes suddenly softened and turned to look at Naruto. "Right, Sweetie? Tell the nurse who you are…"_

"_I'm… Rini…" he said faintly, his body wanting to shut down at the moment from all that emotional distress. He just wanted to fall into himself and escape the ugly reality that was thrust at him._

END FLASHBACK

His eyes closed before snapping suddenly open again, afraid to go back in that murky darkness from earlier.

Once more he found himself looking at the lapping water.

The hair on the back of his neck tingled as he sensed the presence of someone behind him…**watching** him. Slowly, unable to avoid it or ignore it, he turned his head to look. Tear-filled orbs trailed upwards towards the intruder standing on a cliff fifty or so feet above the beach.

Blue met onyx for what seemed a lifetime. Trembling fingers froze in the act of tucking a long lock of gold behind his small ear as the stranger on the cliff stared dumbfounded at the adolescent on the beach.

"_S_he's beautiful…" The words seemed to blow towards the blonde before the wind changed course and blew them away.

The words that his ears did manage to catch were the faraway cry of someone out of sight.

UP ON THE CLIFF

"Sasuke Uchiha, it's starting to get late. Come in the house!" cried an older male's voice in exasperation at what might just be his kid brother.

The boy quickly turned with a scowl on his face to yell to his brother that he was coming.

But by the time the Uchiha had ventured to turn back to look at the sad girl, all he was greeted with were footprints slowly being erased by the waves of the tide.

The End?


End file.
